Sumerian Effect
by Ozymandeos
Summary: When I was just a child, I never would have imagined that any of this could happen. But then the star fell from the sky, and I became this. We led Sumer through the ages. They tried to worship us as gods, but even with our powers we told them we were just human. We led our people into space with the rest of mankind, and only I can guide us through a threat that will consume us all.


**Author's Note: To be honest, this is a side project. It may be updated, may not be. But I do have vague plans for it.**

* * *

"My Lord, the scientific team is reporting in. Shall I put them on?" The voice startled me as it squawked over the speakers. I'd asked to not be disturbed unless it was them, so the slight annoyance I felt at the interruption of my meditation wasn't well-founded.

"Yes. Shi'lari, patch them through." Unbeknownst to my young secretary, her interruption had jolted me from my meditation and now another headache was coming on. I seemed to be getting them more and more as the years went on, but I'd long since learned to cope with the pain.

After a brief crackle, a hologram of the captain in charge of our attempt at open another Mass Relay popped up. "Lord Gilgamesh." He bowed, his traditional robes rustling across the armor that our military wore. I had never liked being called lord, or king, or anything of the sort. But the people insisted on it.

"Yes Admiral Kireth? How is the project proceeding?"

"Ahead of schedule. The scientists report that we should have the relay online by later today." Even through the grainy transmission, I could see the way the man's eyes lit up as he spoke, "I can't thank you enough for giving me command of this historic project. The first time a minor nation has independently opened one of these technological marvels, and legally has claim to whatever is found beyond!"

"Patience Admiral, patience," my wise persona, which always went up at any time people were nearby, counseled. "I would hardly call us a minor nation. A sanctioned warfleet under your command, large holdings on Earth, and major colonies here and on three other worlds. We even have guest seats on the Alliance parliament. But we cannot forget where we came from. Stay vigilant, who knows what threats may yet come. I have not guided us through nearly five-thousand years of history only to see that the training we give every man and woman in Sumer go to waste in an unknown threat."

"I understand. I'll report back when something happens." And with that the conversation ended. I considered going back to meditating, but I was out of the mindset now. I extinguished the incense burners and decided to go down and visit the others, to remind myself what would happen if I ever let my self-control lapse and succumbed to the desires that had coursed beneath my skin since the incident.

The ceremonial guards stationed around the sparsely decorated palace, which also served as the seat of government for my nation, bowed as I walked past them, going down the primitive stone staircase into the bowels of this planet. I had carved each and every step from the stone myself, forgoing modern industry in favor of using my powers, so that I could contain the husks of my old friends and the only others who truly understood me. The only other ones who had lived through five-thousand years of history, and who had been driven insane.

Eventually I came to the massive steel gate which, unlike the staircase, was the most advanced vault door humanity had ever made. For within it were things that would wreak unspeakable havoc upon the world if they were unleashed. After the door verified my identity, I stepped through into the hallway that linked the four caverns. I had made each as close to their occupant's favorite locations as possible. Already I could hear the howls and screams, feel the pull as they used their power to try to break free and suck me towards them.

The first room was a verdant forest, the place where Ania had felt most at home. Within the empty shell of the woman I'd once worked with thrashed and fought endlessly to free herself from the bonds I had been forced to put on her.

The second room was much taller and narrower, and Ji'vin was chained to the top of a cliff overlooking a simulated sea, the room exactly like where he'd said he had always been calmest. Seeing the once-mighty warrior reduced to this state disturbed me… but I needed to know why I couldn't succumb. My mind could not fail and leave Sumer leaderless.

The third was just a bare stone cave, much like the one Ha'tir had claimed he'd been raised in. The man himself, once a silver-tongued diplomat, was clothed in tattered shreds of his formal robes. Unlike the others, he was actually docile most of the time. Almost seeming to meditate, giving me hope that one day he and the others could regain their sanity.

I barely managed to force myself to enter the fourth room. The room where Celenia was imprisoned. As she was just as powerful as me, her door was nearly as reinforced as the main one. The interior, crafted to look like our old palace in the original, long-destroyed, city of Uruk had long since been torn to shreds by the power at her command. The stone had been no match for what the scientists told us were intensely powerful mass effect fields, which the incident had somehow given us the ability to control. I still viewed the power as a gift from the gods, no matter what form it took.

The woman I'd once loved tried to pull me into her prison as soon as the door had fully opened. And she nearly did. I managed to stay on my feet, but I knew I couldn't enter. Couldn't try to talk some sense into her, comfort her and nurse her back to the sanity she had lost. I would never leave, both from how her powers would hold me there and how my love for her would do the same.

It was with a heavy heart, and a mind burdened with the worries of a nation and my possible fall from grace, that I left the underground vault. Halfway up the stone stairs my omni-tool came into signal range, and a single message buzzed up, sent live.

_"…aking fire. I repeat, the Sun of Sumer is taking heavy fire! Unknown alien vessels are targeting us. Attempting to…" _And then it cut out. Admiral Kireth's voice disappeared into static, and I assumed the worst.

So I started running.


End file.
